Treatment
Surgery
Kasai Portoenterostomy - This operation connects the bile drainage from the liver directly to the intestinal tract. It is most successful when done before an infant is 8 weeks old. The Kasai procedure is helpful because it can allow a child to grow and remain in fairly good health for several years.
Nutrition
With biliary atresia, not enough bile reaches the intestine to assist with the digestion of fats in the diet. Protein deficiencies may occur due to liver damage. Vitamin deficiencies may also occur. Children with liver disease require more calories than a normal child because they do not absorb the same amount of calories and nutrition. Your physician may recommend that a pediatric nutritionist make recommendations regarding your child's diet. Nutritional guidelines may include the following:
- provide your child with a good, well-balanced diet. Sometimes special infant formulas are required.
- MCT (medium-chain triglyceride) oil may be recommended to add extra calories to the diet and help your child grow. Medium-chain triglycerides are more easily digested without bile than other types of fats. MCT oil can be added to foods and liquids that your child eats.
- Supplement your child's diet with vitamins, as directed by your child's physician.
- Provide your child with high-calorie liquid feedings, as directed by your child's physician. Some children with liver disease become too sick to eat normally. In this case, your physician may recommend that your child have liquid feedings given to help meet his/her body's requirements. These feedings are given through a tube called a nasogastric tube (NG) that is guided into the nose, down the esophagus, and into the stomach. A high-calorie liquid can be given through the tube to supplement your child's diet if he/she is able to eat only small amounts of food, or to replace meals if your child is too sick to eat.
Liver Transplant
A liver transplant removes the damaged liver and replaces it with a new liver from a donor. The new liver can be:
- a whole liver, received from a donor who has died.
- part of a liver, received from a donor who has died.
- part of a liver, received from a living relative or other person whose tissue types match the child's tissue type.
After surgery, the new liver begins functioning and the child’s health often improves quickly. After a liver transplant, children will need to take medications to prevent the body from rejecting the new organ. Rejection occurs due to one of the body's normal protective mechanisms that helps fight against invasion of viruses, tumors, and other foreign substances. Anti-rejection medications are taken in order to prevent this normal response of the body from fighting against the transplanted organ. Frequent contact with the physicians and other members of the transplant team is crucial after a liver transplant.
Contact Us
- 1-866-543-5487
- (1-866-KID-LIVR)
